That's what the Guardian claims in a new article today. Steven Spielberg's seminal 1977 film eschewed the rationality that had been science fiction's hallmark, in favor of an unexplained brush with the transcendent, which mostly takes place in suburbia. Instead of figuring stuff out, Richard Dreyfuss' character starts creating weird modern art, out of materials in his home. And Close Encounters "does not offer any sense of history or progress or any theory as to what the alien encounter means."

Did Close Encounters help to launch a rebellion against the strictures of modernism, or is it just an especially baffling science fiction film? Read the Guardian's article and judge for yourself. [Guardian]